Larry Sanders advocates for the legal use of marijuana while the Bucks lose a game in Chicago: Bulls 102 — Bucks 90

Khris Middleton, PF33 MIN | 2-4 FG | 6-6 FT | 6 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 10 PTS | -15He got called for the world’s crappiest technical foul ever: D.J. Augustin didn’t like Brandon Knight trying to tie him up for a jump ball. While getting off the ground after the whistle, Augustin threw a shoulder into Knight’s legs. Middleton came over to split it up and put his hand up when Augustin tried to push him away. Somehow the refs reviewed this play in slow motion on monitors and decided it merited a tech on Khris. Other than that, it was easy to forget Middleton was in this game.

Made 2 of 3 shots from outside and 7 of 9 shots in the paint. Those are good numbers and good ratios that pushed Adrien to a new career-high in points. In the second half, he was outplaying Carlos Boozer by playing exactly the way that Boozer plays: bumping around, grabbing rebounds, making bodies bounce off him.

He left the game to get a few stitches over his right eye, then later returned. He completely negated Joakim Noah — a top-5 MVP candidate this season — except for letting Noah nab 6 offensive rebounds. Noah shot 2-for-14 from the field and had more turnovers (5) than assists (4).

He and Brandon Knight combined for 1 of the Bucks’ 6 assists in the first half. The ball wasn’t moving particularly well and the offense had no rhythm whatsoever. He didn’t make shots either, but he did get his customary 8 trips to the free throw line.

Like Sessions, he killed the offensive flow in the first half. But he’s a grinder and he fought to make it close in the second half. On one play, he coughed up a turnover to Mike Dunleavy, but scrapped back to erase Dunleavy’s layup — while drawing a foul moments later. He drew a technical foul in the fourth and fouled out soon after — the refs were shaky in this one, and particularly so with respect to Knight: He blocked a Dunleavy shot from the side and a ref in exactly the wrong spot to see the play whistled him for it.

He never looks bad in the stat sheet (except with respect to the plus/minus stat; he was minus-17 in this one), but it’s the little things: making contact when he sets a screen, switching out on a jump shooter when his man sets a pick, hustling back on defense in transition. He can do more. He did make both of his free throws.

He got in for just 22 seconds of garbage time on a night when the Bucks were woefully short of bodies. After the game, he tweeted on the last day of his 10-day contract like a player who was leaving, “Grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the Bucks organization… Met some great dudes. Just the beginning of a long journey”.

Giannis has gotten back to going at the rim. All but one of his shots was taken in the restricted area. When he finds the touch, he’ll be back to getting A’s. The Bucks were best when he was on the floor; he’s doing the little things that will eventually make him a 5×5 threat on a regular basis. On one play, he went HIGH to pluck what should have been an easy crosscourt pass by the Bulls out of the air.

Larry Sanders, Marijuana Advocate

Sanders picked the worst possible time to become the NBA’s most vocal defender of marijuana. As he told Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:“It’s something I feel strongly about, just to let you know something personal about me. I will deal with the consequences from it. It’s a banned substance in my league. But I believe in marijuana and the medical side of it.“I know what it is if I’m going to use it. I study it and I know the benefits it has. In a lot of ways we’ve been deprived. You can’t really label it with so many other drugs that people can be addicted to and have so many negative effects on your body and your family and your relationships and impairment. This is not the same thing.”

“Yeah I could [overcome that],” he said. “The recipe doesn’t change. It’s just more motivation to work harder. It’s something negative to deal with. But the recipe doesn’t change for me. I’m just as excited for the summer.”

“The stigma is that it’s illegal. I hate that,” Sanders said. “Once this becomes legal, this all will go away.”

“The great thing about that idea is that, then you could get prescribed for it and see a doctor and they could tell you,” he said. “You don’t have to self-medicate, you don’t have to over-medicate ourselves. Y’know, because we don’t know now. We can’t diagnose ourselves.

“Once it becomes legal … you sit down with a doctor and [he says], ‘You may need this three times a day. This dosage here.’ And you don’t over-medicate. It [addresses] those needs medically that you need. It’s natural.”

You could argue whether Sanders is right in his defense of the legalization of marijuana. What cannot be argued is that Sanders has the shittiest sense of timing and the tiniest sense of self-responsibility ever.

Also: where is his representation? Who is telling him when and what to say? Dan Fegan, where are you?

Larry Drew

After the game, Drew said, “I think the most important thing is that (Sanders) learns from his mistakes,” Drew said. “Hopefully, he can put them behind him, get on the right track and stay on the right track.”

He also said, “We’re all disappointed at the news. It’s unfortunate, but the organization has issued a statement and I would rather not comment on it.”

Three Things We Saw

At one point, Nazr Mohammed caught a pass on the baseline, turned, and forced up a 15-foot fallaway that arced high and fell through the twine. So perhaps it wasn’t going to be the Bucks’ night. In another sense, though, it was: the 76ers lost giving the Bucks a three-game lead in the ping pong ball race.

Gery Woefel tweeted that the Bucks are interested in Erik Murphy, who was cut by the Bulls this week. If Ekpe Udoh and Miroslav Raduljica are hurt for any significant time, the Bucks could use a fourth big man.

Sure he went to VCU, but no one needs a Badgers win more than Larry Sanders. He needs to be saved from himself. On second thought, that is way too big a task for the Badgers.

Husband. Father. Blogger. Retired mathlete. I covered Larry Sanders' "Three Thumbs Up" game as credentialed media -- and failed to see well enough to witness the thumbing as it happened. On Twitter, I'm anaheimamigos.

7 Comments

Interesting timing by Sanders considering Scott Walker has a double jeopardy bill on his desk right now waiting to be signed / veto’d regarding the prosecution of marijuana and another bill being debated about the legalization of possession and sale of marijuana under half an ounce.

Larry, if you truly want to come clean, and get clean from marijuana, then I’m in favor of you getting all the help you need; if you want to keep taking marijuana, then I’m in favor of doing everything possible to void your contract.
If you’re willing to deal with the consequences of using an illegal substance, then be prepared to lose your contract with the Bucks, and perhaps go to jail.

How many times this year have we read something to the effect from Bucksketball that Khris Middleton is pretty much invisible on the court — or that he’s just a shooter who is otherwise pretty much invisible on the court?
I really think that this is a problem with Bucksketball, not with Khris Middleton. Bucksketball is overlooking Khris, just like it overlooked Tobias, just like it is largely overlooking John Henson.
Unless you’re a player with a flair for the spectacular, or are perceived as a budding superstar, then there’s a very good chance that Bucksketball doesn’t consider you to be worthy of their attention, and that you’re beneath their notice.
So, according to Bucksketball it seems, Bucks fans should only pay attention to Giannis and our big draft pick this June. The other guys are just filler, it doesn’t really matter whether they stay or go, and they’re all a big yawn. Only potential hall-of-famers deserve enthusiasm and encouragement. All of our other promising young players… meh.

Middleton was given a C+ which is slightly above average…What about him having 10 pts and 6 rebounds is more than a C+? Your one man fight for Middleton to be recognized as something he’s not has been quite amusing over the past month or so. He’s a nice player, but if he’s one of the top players on your team then your team sucks, like the Bucks do.

What about Giannis scoring 4 points on 1-6 shooting is worth a higher grade the Khris? Also, Giannis recently got an “A+” from a Bucksketball recapper after a rather ordinary showing. I’m a big fan of Giannis, but if we’re grading on a curve, it would be good to know.
On a related note, I recently read an article that, to me, made a good case that Bobby Dandridge of the 1970s Bucks merits induction into the NBA hall of fame. It was Dandrige’s unassuming demeanor that may be the reason he has been overlooked.
So please be careful not to underappreciate the quiet guys. First of all, you need good supporting actors to make a first-rate production; secondly, those supporting actors might become stars in their own right, especially if it’s very early in their careers.

3 steals and 2 blocks indicates the level of D that Giannis was playing at, thus earning him a higher grade. Khris has been pedestrian at best on defense for most of the year. The best thing you can say about him on D is that he tries hard. Plus we weren’t talking about Giannis!!

Although Sanders hasn’t done a thing to endear himself to Bucks fans he does make a good point about prescription marijuana. It is the best way to manage pain, it provides relief from stress and although mildly addictive it doesn’t come close to standard prescription drugs or even over counter items. It should also b pointed out that you pretty much have to be an idiot to get caught smoking the devil weed in the NBA as there testing protocols are weeeaaakkkk. Thus, people should realize that probably at a minimum 50% of NBA players smoke pot right now so legalization or acceptance of medical marijuana would be both welcomed and easily accepted by the players.